Does it matter where I get my photos printed?
In short yes it does, why you ask? Well you've just made an investment into a family session with a professional photographer & received a gallery filled with beautiful images... now you go and get them printed through a cheaper print app on your phone or popped down to the supermarket to have them printed. You receive them & they don't look like what they did on the screen, but why?
You immediately think oh it must be something the photographer did but instead of asking the photographer you just decide oh they must not be very good & don't use them again, now it could be that the photographer didn't export the images at high resolution so that is worth contacting them to ask about, editing/exporting for screen viewing & for print are very different. However more often than not its the print company you've chosen to use and how they compress the image before printing & the colour quality of that printer. I myself have had photos printed from certain companies that look completely different to another company, some have come back pixelated from one company & not from another some the colours are completely off compared to what I see when I look at my gallery. This showed me that it could not have been anything I did as the photographer as I have my images printed beautifully from the company I now use regularly & they are hanging in my home. If you look into the FAQ's on the print companies page or the trouble shooting it usually states they do crop/compress an image before printing, they may also say they aren't able to print images of a certain size so by you then cropping the image to make the file size smaller will affect image quality.
I have spent time test printing my images with different print companies to ensure my images print to the quality & colour I want to see when I print them. I also like to contact my families when they have their photos printed to see how they went, who they used & would they recommend them. This way I can compile a list of companies that I feel confident to tell my families about & know they will receive exactly what they are expecting to receive when they print their images to hang in their home.
So please when you print your images use a premium print company or ask your photographer who they recommend to use based on how they edit their images as all print companies & printers are different. If you do have issues when printing your images contact your photographer it may be a simple fix that was out of the photographers control & they can easily help you to fix.
If you've had a session with me you would know that I offer a list of companies tried & tested by myself & other families but of course if you have any questions I'm always here to help :)
Ashleigh xx
